Reading Time: 2 minutes I remember seeing a book written by John Bogle (the founder of Vanguard) where he suggested “individual investors should buy mutual fund not stock”. I agree with some of his arguments, such as diversification. And I believe that’s also the fact in the US: where pension fund and university endowment fund invested in stocks, mostly

Reading Time: < 1 minute I added some Chinese financial blog under “blogroll”. Two notables are Dan Bin (CEO of a private equity in Shenzhen), and Zhu Ping (Guangfa Fund manager, a graduate from Shanghai Univ. of Finance and Economics). Both are disciples of Buffett. Dan Bin bought a share of Berkshire so that he could attend the Berkshire annual

Reading Time: 2 minutes Looking for a cheap but clean (decent) place stay in Shanghai? I revisited this issue and have the following observations. 1) Home Inns, Jinjiang Inn, Motel 168 and Hanting Hotels are not the cheapest. But they offer the best value in terms of location (near metro station or major business center). I have stayed in

Reading Time: 2 minutes The saga of applying the US visa. Warning: for entertainment purpose only. I am not providing any advice for visa application. Last Friday I went to the US consulate Shanghai for the worker visa, with my wife applying H-4. Ten years have passed since I first applied the student visa. A lot things have changed:

Reading Time: 2 minutes Last week one of the biggest news in consumer electronics arena is Apple decided to cut the iPhone price. Consider Apple just started shipping iPhone in late June, this move is a blow to its most loyal customers (early adopters). Apple quickly responded to the angry customers by offering $100 credit (source: Apple.com). From my

Reading Time: < 1 minute Here are the results from Yahoo Finance, some highlights: Second Quarter 2007 Highlights: — Total net revenues increased 99.3% over the second quarter of 2006 to US$30.2 million. (1H revenue $64 m, slight decline over Q1 2007?) — Net income increased 482.1% over the second quarter of 2006 to US$7.1 million. — Diluted earnings per

Reading Time: < 1 minute 1) Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks, talked about competition from McDonald and Dokin Donuts. Starbucks is not an advertiser. If other companies are going to advertise and promote specialty coffee, Starbucks is going to benefit in the long term,” he said. 2) iPhone price cut and iPod touch launch: Steve Jobs announced Apple will cut

Reading Time: < 1 minute That’s the new services to be offered by two great companies: Apple and Starbucks. According Seattle Post Intelligence: Apple’s new wireless iPod music player, iPhone or any laptop computer running iTunes will automatically recognize the iTunes store without a connection fee when customers enter a Starbucks shop that has Wi-Fi access.

Reading Time: < 1 minute is very nice. Here is the picture taken from “view lounge”. We are looking at world famous Yang Long Bay. I have not been to many beaches in China; but from what I heard Yang Long Bay has the best beach in China. The service of Marriott is 5 star. This tripAdvisor review confirmed my

Reading Time: < 1 minute At least on Internet front, as I read this post from Wang Jianshuo. Similar thing can be said about the China stock market, the “open H-share to domestic investors” initiative took a pause this week. The new word is it will start in 2 months; and the minimum balance is 300 k Yuan (vs. previous